Leeds College of Building

Work has started on Leeds College of Building’s new £16million education and training facility.

The project is being constructed on land that was purchased last year from Yorkshire Design Group at Hunslet Lane and Black Bull Street in the heart of Leeds City Centre.

Leeds College of Building has appointed GB Building Solutions as the lead contractor and AECOM as project managers. The new all purpose 8,000 square meter building will take approximately 51 weeks to build.

Ian Billyard, Principal at Leeds College of Building said:

“This much anticipated project will not only encourage further regeneration of the area, but will create an inspiring new campus that will serve a large proportion of our 7,500 students.

“It’s an extremely exciting time for the college and we envisage that the project will be hugely beneficial to our students and staff as well as the wider construction industry as we will be able to support growth from this new campus.”

Mike Harris, Director at Fuse Studios Limited, the architects for the scheme said:

“The new building will deliver an unrivalled learning environment for the students, with over half of the space dedicated to the new specialist workshops. Separate classroom areas and non-teaching spaces which include a new entrance piazza, library, student services area and refectory all combine to create a truly innovative and inspiring learning environment; which will achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating when complete.”

Anthony Judge from GB Group said:

“Having recently worked on projects for Wakefield College and Huddersfield University, GB is delighted to be putting its experience in this sector to good use at Leeds College of Building’s new campus. We have already started the enabling works with vibro and pad foundations scheduled for February and March, after that, we will start work on the erection of the steel frame. The whole project will be completed for the start of January 2015.”

Robert Hardy, Director from AECOM, the Project Managers for the scheme said:

“This is a fantastic development for the college and students, providing first rate specialist facilities to support teaching and learning of the built environment and further enhancing the colleges’ position in the Construction Skills Sector. The development also supports the regeneration of the South Bank providing much needed linkage with the City.”

Ian concluded:

“The project marks the start of the consolidation of our six sites into this energy efficient and attractive new campus which will sit alongside our existing North Street and Millwright Street campuses. The new site is extremely easy to access on foot, both from the train and bus stations, and the move will no doubt raise the profile of our extremely successful college, which is the only specialist construction college in the UK.”

Leeds College of Building currently offers a wide range of Apprenticeships in courses including brickwork, carpentry & joinery, electrical, painting & decorating, plastering, plumbing, surveying and wall & floor tiling.

In addition the college offers 22 Advanced Apprenticeship routes, in the above, and technical routes such as Civil Engineering together with two Higher Level Apprenticeships in Construction and Built Environment (Sustainability) and Facilities Management which offer university equivalent, work based education at an affordable price.

The college also works with over 1,500 employers across the region providing on-site training and development for their staff.

Leeds College of Building was established in 1960 and is the only specialist further education construction college in the UK. The College is based over six sites in Leeds: North Street (main site); Millwright Street; Parkside Lane, Lockwood Way, Stourton, & the RISE and the Principal is Ian Billyard, who was appointed in March 2003.

The College was one the first colleges in the Yorkshire and Humber region to be awarded full accreditation (part A and B) for the new quality standard which confirms the college is helping meet employer needs through effective and responsive training and development solutions